WhatsApp changes privacy policy

 

Sanctioned in early September with a fine of 225 million euros by the Irish CNIL, WhatsApp has changed its privacy policy, without disrupting everything.

Regarding data protection, the Irish Data Protection Commission had banged its fist on the table by fining WhatsApp on September 2 last year. The regulator accused the instant messaging group of the Meta group (Facebook) of having violated the GDPR by not respecting the obligation of transparency in terms of information to users. While WhatsApp appealed the decision, it took the opportunity to adjust its privacy policy.

WhatsApp changes its policy, but without changing the data processing

WhatsApp has changed its privacy policy, without making any real changes. In reality, the application has only detailed and clarified its conditions of use vis-à-vis its many European users, thus making an act of transparency after a sanction which, at the start of the school year, strongly pointed out this lack. transparency in terms of personal data.

While WhatsApp has made an adjustment to its privacy policy, instant messaging emphasizes that nothing is changing in the way its users' data is handled.

Specifically, WhatsApp explains that it has added additional details about its existing practices, the reasons why the service stores data, and how it is transmitted beyond the borders of the European Union. Only the European version is moreover affected by the modification of this confidentiality policy.

An explanatory banner will appear in the application

European WhatsApp users will not have to agree to a new privacy policy, but the company specifies that Internet and mobile users will be informed through a banner that will appear momentarily in the application.

WhatsApp, whose European headquarters are in Ireland, faced the anger of its users at the beginning of the year, who accuse the company of sharing their data with the parent company Meta, formerly the Facebook group.

The Meta group's end-to-end encrypted instant messaging had until November 22 to review its position. The fine imposed on WhatsApp, in the amount of 225 million euros, is the second-largest imposed on behalf of the GDPR in the European Union, after that sent by the Luxembourg data protection authority to Amazon this summer (746 million euros). WhatsApp, for its part, maintains its call to try to escape the fine of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner.